N01 Unpacking Notes: "Deep Workforce" | Carl Newport | A textbook that teaches you to go beyond mediocrity

📖 Author: Carl Newport | 📝 Translator: Wu Guoqing | 📠 Publisher: Times Culture | ⭐️Douban Score: 8.0

📗 About the book and deep work

With the advancement of technology, the changes of the times are also accelerated, and the rhythm of life is also the same, not to mention the workplace. The wealth gap has gradually widened with inflation, and the cognitive gap between people has also widened. Capable people crowded together, and the people wandering in the middle and bottom encouraged each other to keep warm. We are the same people, why are our lives so different?

Carl Newport put forward a research on the gap in work, a brand-new concept, "Deep Work Force", which has received great responses from netizens and readers. Deep work is a part of our work that we ignore. From this book we can understand that

• Why do some people seem to be able to outperform more than half of their colleagues with seemingly no effort and time?
• Why are we poor and strange, but not as strong as the successful people standing at the top?
• Why do we seem to work hard but in vain?

Let's follow Carl Newport to uncover the secrets of productivity.

📗 What is deep work

 Quote 039 "Deep Work Force"
Deep work is professional activity free from distractions. This specialization can push your cognitive abilities to the limit, and the effort creates new value, improves your technique, and is difficult for others to imitate.

The core concept of deep work is the maximization of focus and mind. In other words, the way to enter a state of flow. In the book, the author presents the difference between deep work and shallow work.

 Deep work 1. Requires great concentration and mentality 2. Can create greater value and power 3. Difficult to replicate shallow work 1. Non-high cognitive demands and biased towards logistical work 2. Distracted attention/autonomous driving state can also Execution 3. Easy to imitate

Deep work requires simplicity. Automate or reduce the impact of shallow work that would otherwise require energy and time. If we break down the logic of deep work into a formula for maximum productivity, we can get

Maximum Productivity = Time x Energy x Focus Multiplier

If we want to achieve career and financial success, then all we have to do is to downsize our competitors in terms of ability and information. To learn quickly and train the ability to produce high value, deep work is the foundation of getting started.

📗Why can't we deep work?

Focus is mentioned many times in the book as a core element of deep work. In reality, we mistakenly think that shallow work is also deep work, just like replying to messages and emails, small and innocuous requests. And just like that, when we try to quantify this work item, we find that attention has been distracted, and the price of distraction is the destruction of value and flow state, contrary to the definition of deep work, the author calls it a black hole of measurement. Switching jobs all the time leads to distraction, and it fails to achieve a state of flow, so it goes around in the underlying work.

The book applies the principle of least resistance to express the key to distraction. The human brain tends to do the easy things. In the principle of least resistance, the less resistance something is, the easier it is for us to execute it because it is easier and less strenuous. There is a decisive problem with the principle of least resistance. If used properly, the principle of least resistance can improve habits and improve life. On the other hand, if it is used for life enjoyment or convenience, the principle of least resistance will greatly reduce the quality of production. The reason is that doing easy things is more pleasurable and relaxing, and that's what the brain wants. What we can see here is the daily swiping of the phone and browsing social media, activities that will rewire our brains, causing our dopamine machinery to malfunction, favoring lower pleasures in particular.

The author mentions the illusion of busyness. Many people use busyness as a productivity indicator, and today, companies often favor workers who work late. Busyness is not a real increase in productivity, that is an industrial indicator. As a contributor to knowledge products, production value should be used as an indicator more often. If we fall into the illusion of being busy, then naturally we will chase after being busy, that is, the more things we do, the better. Then it is more natural that we will not be able to work deeply and contribute to the higher value of the world.

📗 Core manipulation of deep work force

 First, cultivate deep work ability - work habits Second, learn to embrace boredom - focus and mental training Third, reject any good mentality - internal improvement Fourth, eliminate superficial work - block external influences

The book talks about focusing on the work of the moment and thinking rationally about behaviors and habits. If we want to get some kind of performance, then we have to quantify our behavior and thinking and make life work like a system. The atomic habit also mentions that if you want to improve, then you have to do it, and the best way is to do it without consuming willpower.

📗Principle 1 - Develop deep work skills

Principle 1 in the book - Develop deep work skills has 6 strategies to help us build the habit system and system to achieve the ideal state of non-conscious execution. Willpower is a limited resource. Through systems and systems, we can reduce the loss of willpower and improve our execution through non-consciousness. The argument here draws on the principles of reducing drag and enhancing execution mentioned by Atomic Habits.

Principle 1 is a more in-depth guide from atomic habits to guide readers on how to enter a state of flow and block disturbances. Here are 6 strategies from the book to develop deep work skills.

Strategy 1 - Work Patterns and Forms

This refers to working hours.

 4 modes, full body mode, interspersed mode, rhythm mode, all the time mode.

Strategy 2 - Work Ceremony

This refers to psychological cues.

 The work ritual can be the time and place, it is a reminder to let the brain enter the working state and achieve the effect of reducing resistance.

Strategy 3 - Run like a business

The book mentions four disciplines.

 Focus on what matters, leading indicator actions, scoreboards, and regular performance checks.

Strategy 4 - Laziness

The body and mind must be released to increase production and quality.

 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Strategy 5 - Don't work alone

Working alone is like working behind closed doors, and it will be hard to get better ideas without adding new ideas.

 Accumulate other ideas, think more and do less, to achieve the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort.

Strategy 6 - Big Action Work Arrangement

Sometimes procrastination isn’t because we don’t really want to do it, it’s because the project doesn’t matter.

 By stimulating ourselves by paying the price, we will increase the importance of the project.

📗 Principle 2 - Embrace boredom

Principle 2 refers to embracing boredom, and I understand it to mean focus and mental training. We also have a habit of using our focus and our mind. If we enter a state of concentration for a long time and can eliminate external interference, then we can use our concentration for a longer time, and because of inertia, we have lower resistance. Nas mentioned that once the brain gets used to distraction, the wiring of the brain is likely to have been modified, and it becomes a state of confusion and difficulty in focusing.

What is a state of mind confusion? The editor used to be very confused for a period of time, and there were many ideas in my mind, but my thinking was very chaotic, like being enveloped in a thick haze, I couldn’t concentrate, and often I couldn’t sit down and finish a piece quietly. thing. Through long-term counseling and training, the haze has gradually dissipated, and the mind has become much clearer. My training method is like the 4 strategies described in the book.

 Strategy 1 - Deliberate Focus Strategy 2 - Sprint Focus on One Thing / Sprint Strategy 3 - Thinking Meditation Strategy 4 - Memory Training

Strategy 1 - Deliberately train concentration

The book mainly refers to scheduling time. The example used by the author is to arrange distraction time. I think the core concept is the time of focus. Limit a period of time to do more difficult and focused assignments, such as drawing, writing, reading, etc., instead of browsing websites or watching videos. Focusing on one thing at the moment pushes the spirit to the limit, and it also requires constant reflection and distraction.

The editor believes that although the Internet occupies a large part of our lives, there are also small things in life that trouble us and cause us to be distracted. The real enemy is not the source of our distractions, but our inertia. Once you have a thought, start chasing it.

In the book's adjustment of the brain, the editor believes that it is more effective to exercise concentration and concentration. When the thought arises, immediately cut off or divert it and continue with the task at hand.

Strategy 2 - Sprint Focus on One Thing / Sprint Training

The book mentions arranging projects that require deep work, to be completed within a given time, and to maintain a high degree of concentration during the period, and cannot be completed under the influence of anything. This is a kind of training. The editor thinks that you can set the time to calculate the time of your concentration, and break the record again and again, so as to achieve the effect of improving the concentration time.

Strategy 3 - Contemplative Meditation

The productivity meditation mentioned in the book is actually to condense the time when the mind is scattered, and start to focus on a problem when doing some projects, such as exercise, walking, driving, eating, bathing, which are autonomous and do not consume brain power. . Just like meditation, when the focus is about to slack off or drift away, bring it back in time. This training can be done all the time. There are two suggestions in the book.

The first is to be mindful of distractions. As a beginner in meditation, it is often difficult to do Vipassana. Vipassana is to examine your own thoughts, what you are thinking, and why. So when meditating, focus on one point. Brought to productivity meditation, the concept is the same, excluding and channeling other thoughts to focus on one problem.

The second is to organize deep thinking. There should be a framework when thinking. Start with a problem, then find a solution, verify the solution to get results, review the results to consolidate the results, store, and cycle.

Strategy 4 - Memory Training

One of the key reasons for improving memory is that when memory improves, mastery of things will improve, and concentration will also improve. Various training methods can be found on the Internet, so improving memory is not about methods, but about mentality.

📗Principle 3 - Reject the good mentality

The mentality of rejecting the benefits mentioned in Principle 3 is actually an exposition of quantitative choices. As said earlier, the brain prefers easy and simple things because it doesn't drain willpower. The brain is lazy. If we want to master some technology quickly, then we have to work deeply. The more things around us, these things will consume our concentration all the time, so where do we talk about concentration?

When it comes to quantifying choices, we are not rational all the time, and being rational for long periods of time doesn't make us effectively happy (unless you're an iron man or a robot). Of course, we can choose to use the rule of twenty-eight or the dichotomy to maintain a balance in our lives when we can choose.

To quantify choices, actually ask yourself if there are advantages and disadvantages of doing so, which one is more beneficial. The book uses the Internet as an example, using social platforms for a long time, checking emails, and various other temptations will cause our attention to drop. As mentioned in our principle 2, the brain will be remodeled to be more inclined to Simple and easily accessible benefits. This is also mentioned in the feedback loop, the failure of dopamine function.

80% of the results come from 20% of the choices. Consumption is everywhere in life, and spirit is also a kind of consumption, so please choose carefully.

📗Principle 4 - Exclude superficial things

When discussing the difference between a 4-day working day and a 5-day working day, Fred mentioned that reducing working time can make working time more valuable, can effectively reduce superficial things, and get more work essence. While deep work can provide higher value, it is unrealistic to talk about the complete elimination of shallow work. Shallow jobs can be defined as administrative trivialities, meetings, messages, emails, etc. Sometimes these jobs are not important, but their existence should not be underestimated. After all, we cannot be completely disconnected in urban life.

The book proposes 5 strategies to correspond to the scheme of reducing superficial things.

 Strategy 1 - Schedule every minute of the work day Strategy 2 - Quantify the depth of each activity Strategy 3 - Identify time ratios for shallow work Strategy 4 - End work before 5:30 Strategy 5 - Make it hard to reach yourself

Strategy 1 - Schedule every minute

One of the great problems in our lives is the misjudgment of time. We often think we've spent enough time on something, when in fact we're only doing it a fraction of the time, and it comes down to our "autopilot" state. So why do we drive autonomously? As we mentioned above, the brain often chooses to save energy. In a habitual project, or a routine situation, the brain will choose to use previous experience to execute. Our actions need guidance, and this is where timetables are very helpful.

In the simplified version of the working method made by the editor, we can divide the large-scale projects into different large time periods, perform in-depth work in these time periods, and divide the small-scale projects into the gaps between these time periods, so as to achieve interspersed work process. If you want to do the way in the book, you can refer to the production plan in the book.

The editor thinks that it should be determined by the work form, so the liquidity can be adjusted by itself. The core of deep work is focus and inertia, so you don’t need to pay attention to the execution plan, execute it according to your comfortable way, then feedback whether it works, and then adjust it yourself. The gist of this strategy is to focus the distraction and autopilot time on the little things.

Strategy 2 - Quantify the depth of each activity

This refers to the concentration and mental capacity an activity requires. The book cites a thought experiment as an example, give a thing to the same person as you to carry out, how long you need to give him the time and materials to complete it. From this we can deduce whether the project is shallow work or requires deep execution. Shallow jobs are generally low-cognitive, low-volume, and logistical jobs. Because the required threshold is low, it is relatively easy to imitate, the resources required for execution are relatively small, and there are relatively many alternatives.

Strategy 3 - Identify time ratios for shallow work

As strategy 1 said, make adjustments according to our work pattern. For special research projects, deep work will naturally take longer; for logistics, shallow work will naturally require more time. But the editor thinks that the deep work force can also be used in learning, and the effect will be more significant. Even if we don’t talk about work, we still have a lot of shallow work and distracting things to deal with in life. We can also subdivide our time into study, work and life, and plan the proportion of time.

Strategy 4 - Finish work by 5:30

The core idea of this strategy is to do it within a given time. Less time is more precious, and our efficiency will be sublimated in less time. That's because it will focus on more important projects. People are lazy and naturally procrastinate, so it takes more time.

Here we can make arrangements according to the timetable, and arrange all the idle working time until the end of the set time. All irrelevant matters are left behind, and the trivial matters that are not urgent and unimportant are dealt with after completing the projects that should be done.

Strategy 5 - Make it difficult for yourself to connect

As mentioned earlier, deep work requires a lot of mental and focus, and everything that distracts us naturally needs to be excluded from the scope of work. If you apply the strategies in the book to make a plan that anyone can use, I have summed up some of these experiences:-

 First, add friction to unimportant and distracting things, making it relatively difficult for yourself to execute.
Second, keep distractions out of space.
Third, quantify the impact of actions.

📗 Conclusion

Deep work has been an element of our competition from time immemorial to the present. A person who can focus on a project to the extreme can naturally achieve extraordinary results, even if we are not geniuses.

The message that this book wants to bring out is actually to develop in-depth work habits and programs. As for what to implement and how to implement it, it is a matter of opinion whether readers need high-value products in their life and work patterns.

Xiao Bian believes that if you want to achieve financial success or career success, deep work is actually the beginning. Even if you are engaged in logistics or specialized research, high-value products are often the Holy Grail of success. This has been the case from ancient times to the present. Ancient imperial utensils and civilian utensils are used for the same purpose, so why are imperial utensils more expensive? That is because the poor information and high-tech problems in it cannot be copied, and mediocrity cannot be achieved, so the utensils brought out in this way have irreplaceable value.

Deep work can be used not only in work, but also in life.

If you want to change the status quo or get a higher promotion, then you can try the above plan, come back in three months and see how much you have changed.

 Post Date 25/6/2022, Time 8:56 PM - First Edition